Machine to Machine Solutions Featured Article

InterDigital (News - Alert) Inc., a developer of wireless technologies at the core of mobile devices, networks and services worldwide, offers standards-based gateway and server technologies that have helped power multivendor demonstrations and interoperability testing of wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) communications at the third TC M2M Workshop hosted by ETSI (News - Alert) in Mandelieu, France.

The multivendor demos pave the way for standards-based M2M services that are expected to significantly increase adoption and drive down costs in M2M communications.

Wireless M2M applications include connectivity-enabled devices that use a cellular data link to communicate with the computer server. A database to store collected data and a software application that allows the data to be analyzed, reported and acted upon are also key components of a successful end-to-end solution.

A recent GSMA (News - Alert) report found that by Q4 2012, there will be 6.8 billion total global connections, including machine-to-machine connections.

Future M2M Solutions are envisioned to connect billions of new and existing devices, ranging from high-end smart mobile terminals to low-cost resource-constrained wireless sensors or Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. M2M technologies can be beneficially applied to a broad range of use cases for smart grid, telematics, eHealth/mHealth, vehicular networking and systems, industry control, home automation and environmental monitoring.

While many M2M deployments will make use of short-range or proprietary radio links, cellular-based M2M solutions will be preferred where mobility is required, or where high data volumes or data transfer rates are involved. Cellular-based M2M can also provide easier installation and provisioning, especially for short-term deployments.

Standardization is required in order to deliver cost-effective M2M solutions, and allow this market to take off.

The interoperability demo was based on the TC M2M standard published by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). InterDigital's mature service layer and APIs have been integrated into trial M2M platforms from FP7 BUTLER, Intecs, Intel Corporation, Kontron (News - Alert), Mformation, Radisys and Sensinode, enabling multifaceted demonstrations throughout the workshop.

InterDigital also supports the formation of OneM2M, the global standardization initiative that harmonizes the work of TIA (News - Alert), ETSI and 3GPP, building on the ETSI TC M2M work.

"The successful collaboration between ETSI and the M2M community, including InterDigital, has resulted into the availability of a mature platform that is now fully interworking with commercial legacy M2M systems and applications – a key milestone in defragmenting the M2M market and accelerating the transition to standards-based platforms around the world," Allen Proithis, vice president of Business Development and Strategic Solutions at InterDigital, said in a statement. "We are grateful for the support and commitment of ETSI and all the companies who collaborated on these successful demonstrations. Our enabling solutions are available now and we look forward to working with organizations, vendors, and operators to help integrate InterDigital's service layers and APIs into commercial platforms and services."

Standardization provides a framework and roadmap for the industry to support the proliferation of wireless M2M communications on a global scale. The TC M2M standard enables interoperability across a mix of device and network types and unifies a broad range of vertical markets such as smart energy, healthcare, transportation and security.

Furthermore, operators can now play a key role in accelerating M2M growth through offering streamlined turnkey packages that leverage their strength and expertise in network management, customization, billing and location services.